Never Believe
by Lu78
Summary: AU story that i have no idea where it came from.
1. Chapter 1

A.N – This is an AU story. Don't know where it came from but I am going to try and write it and let me know how I am going with it please. Little background into it. The team have been together for about three years. Martin being the last to come in about two years ago. He is single. Jack and Maria are still together and happy. Viv is still with her husband. Danny is married to Jill with no children as yet. Samantha is married to Paul and has two children, Aidan is almost four and baby Abby is six months old. Samantha recently returned to work after her maternity leave. Aidan and Abby go to the day care in the FBI building.

The first time Samantha walked in with a bruise no one took any notice. In their line of work bruises were an almost daily occurrence. She simply pulled her shirtsleeve over it and carried on with the paper work in front of her.

Martin noticed the look in her eye though. I was a mixture of fear and relief. He brushed it off and went back to his own work.

That night after collecting Aidan and Abby from day-care she headed home. As she drew out of the parking garage, Martin saw her. She looked happy, singing along with her son. Martin had never met anyone so strong and beautiful before. But she was married, so he knew he couldn't go after her.

Arriving home Samantha unbuckled Aidan and let him run up the path to the front door. She lifted the bag containing all the things the children needed during a day at day-care. Hoisting her own bag onto her shoulder she lifted Abby's car seat onto her arm and headed for the door.

Paul opened the door and Samantha could tell he wasn't in a good mood. "Hi Daddy, I built a big tower today and Lesley took pictures of it." Aidan told his dad excitedly.

"That's great buddy. Why don't you go and get your pyjama's ready." Paul patted his son's head, while glaring at his wife. Making sure Aida was up the stairs he turned to her. "Why are you so late?"

"Paul I am not late." Samantha protested.

"You are, you should have been home an hour ago." He snapped. Samantha struggled under the weight of all she carried but Paul did nothing to help. She brushed past him to get into the house. He grabbed her arm as she passed. "You've been with him, haven't you?" He spat at her.

"Who are you talking about?" She asked as she placed Abby's car seat on the floor.

"Fitzgerald." He said with much venom in his voice.

"Of course I was with him. I work with him. Paul I finished work an hour ago. I collected the children from day-care and then have spent the last forty five minutes in traffic trying to get home." She told him, weariness evident in her voice.

"Don't lie to me." He yelled. She started to walk away as he lunged for her. "And don't you walk away from me." He grabbed at her only catching her hair.

Samantha yelped out in pain but Paul kept his hold. Abby started crying, hearing her mother cry out. "Oh shut up!" Paul yelled at his daughter.

"Daddy what are you doing?" Aidan stood on the stairs looking at his father.

Daddy and Mommy are just playing a little game." Paul lied to his son. "You go into the bathroom and get your teeth cleaned and I'll come and read you a bedtime story." He smiled before Aidan turned on the stairs.

"Okay Daddy. Night Mommy, I love you." Aidan smiled at his mom before turning to head back up the stairs, oblivious to what was really going on.

"Love you to Aidan." She whispered, not allowing her voice to get any louder, for fear she would start to cry. Paul's hold on her had not slackened in the time their son had been there. Abby was still crying as well.

"This isn't over." Paul snarled, pushing his wife away from him, before heading up the stairs after his son.

Samantha slid down the wall, her whole body trembling. She undid Abby's car seat and lifted her daughter to her chest. "It's all right baby, Daddy didn't mean it." Samantha told her daughter and herself.


	2. Chapter 2

Over the next few weeks Samantha's work colleagues watched as she retreated further and further into herself. When cases came in she was happy to stay in the office and do record checks and phone records. Jack found it suspicious, as she would normally be desperate to get out there and help with the investigation.

"Jack have you noticed Samantha holding herself funny, as if she is hurt?" Martin approached his boss.

"Can't say that I have, but I'll keep my eyes open for it." Jack answered in return.

Jack stayed true to his word and watched Samantha as she work over the day. Martin was right she did seem to be favouring her left side as if protecting her right. He would have to talk to her about it later.

It became apparent by six – thirty that the case they were working on was far from over. "Jack what am I going to do about Aidan and Abby? Day-care shuts in half an hour and Paul is out tonight so he can' come and get them." Samantha fretted.

"Bring them up here. They can stay in my office." Jack offered. Watching as he face relaxed.

"Thank you." She said gratefully before she made her way down the stairs and into the day-care centre where she hoped the girls would have Abby in her stroller ready to go.

She returned to Jack's office with Abby in her stroller and Aidan trailing behind her. Aidan was pleased to be going to mommy office because he would get to see everyone again. "Hi Uncle Jack." He called out as he bounced into Jack's office.

"Aidan, look at you. You've grown since I last saw you." Jack bent down to the three years olds height. "How are you? Was day-care fun?"

"I'm good. Day-care was okay." Aidan answered. "Mommy said that I haven't to bug you."

"Well if mommy said it, you'd better listen." Jack stood looking to where Samantha was. She appeared to be breathing deeply. "You okay?"

"Yeah." She almost whispered. "Aidan, please be good, mommy won't be long." With that she left Jack's office and headed back to her own desk.

Aidan managed to keep himself occupied for half an hour before he got bored. Abby had fallen asleep in her stroller so now he had no one to play with. "Uncle Jack."

Jack looked up to the little boy. "Yes Aidan."

"Are you busy?"

"A little, this case is a toughie." Jack tried to tone his language down so that the boy understood what he meant.

"You have to stop mommy going out on tough cases. She keeps getting big boo-boo's." Aidan said as he walked up beside his uncle.

Jack lifted the little boy onto his knee. "What do you mean Aidan?"

"Mommy got some really bad boo-boo's and couldn't get dressed this morning. I had to help her." Aidan told him, playing with Jack's tiepin.

"Well, I'll just have to keep a better eye on her then, won't I?" Jack told the little boy. Aidan seemed quite happy about it and went back across to the sofa and within five minutes was sound asleep. Jack mulled over what the young boy had told him and looked over his workers. Samantha had been out the office days, she hadn't been on any cases where she could have got hurt. It made his more suspicious than he already was. He tried to hatch a plan to catch her out. But he would need Viv's help.


	3. Chapter 3

Jack looked over to where the little boy lay curled in a ball, fast asleep on his sofa. What Aidan had told him had Jack wondering about Samantha. What kind of "boo-boos" did she have that Aidan had to help her dress? And was it the meaning of her holding herself strangely today? He looked out to the younger agents. Martin, Danny and Viv sat around the conference table, laughing and joking over their paperwork. Samantha sat on her own at her desk, her head down and working hard. He had a plan hatched in his head so to put it into action.

"Viv, can I speak to you for a moment?" Jack called from his office door. Viv stood from the table and headed towards the bosses office with Danny and Martin sniggering after her.

Standing just inside his office door he looked back across to the young boy who had proclaimed a few things about his mother that made him nervous. "Yes Jack." She spoke in her normal voice.

Jack raised a finger to his lips and pointed to Aidan and Abby. She nodded her head in recognition. "I need your help. Aidan just told me something that has me troubled."

"What?" She whispered.

"He told me to stop sending his mommy out on tough cases, because she has some pretty big boo-boo's." Jack retold the story. "When was the last time Samantha was out the office?"

"Last week, when did he say he saw them?" She asked.

"This morning he had to help her get dressed. They have to be some serious injuries that she can't dress herself. Why hasn't she said anything? I mean you've seen how she is holding herself. How do we get her to open up?"

"Maybe if she had to change her clothes here, then I could go with her and maybe get a peak, then she might open up." Viv suggested.

Jack's eyes lit up. "Excellent idea. But how do we get her to change clothes?"

"Easy we ask Danny to spill his coffee. His coffee cup has been sitting for 30 minutes with about two mouthfuls left in it. It's cold, so won't hurt her but she will be wet and cold so she will hopefully go change."

"But you can't follow her immediately." Jack retorted.

"I'll wait for a few minutes and then go to the toilet. Simple excuse." Viv said as she smiled at the thought of her plan.

"It'll work. Viv you are a genius." Jack said before sending her back to the conference table.

"Danny." Jack called on his younger counterpart. "Can I speak to you for a moment?" Danny jogged up to his boss and looked over his shoulder, smiling at the sleeping children in the office behind them. "I need you to do something for me?"

"Sure boss, what is it?" Danny asked.

"I need you to spill your cold coffee on Samantha." Jack told a surprised Danny,

"What?" Danny stood open mouthed. "I can't do that."

"I need you to. It's important. We need to find out if she is hurt or not." Jack told him. Danny still looked puzzled. "Aidan said Samantha is hurt, pretty bad by the sounds of it, so if you spill your coffee on her she'll go change her top, Viv will follow her to the bathroom and see what she can."

"Ah right, she has been holding herself funny today. Sure I'll do it. I am a klutz after all."

"Thanks Danny."

A few minutes later, Jack heard Samantha squeal as the cold liquid hit her. "Danny what are you like." She screamed. "Jack looked at her face and saw pain there. Had she moved too quickly and pulled something else?

She moved slowly passed everyone heading towards the locker room to change. Viv sat for a while before going to do her part of the scheme. The boys watching behind her.

Entering the locker room, Viv was sure she could hear someone whimpering in pain. She guessed it was Samantha but didn't call out to her. She wanted to wait and see what had happened. By the time the stall door opened Samantha had been away from the bullpen for almost twenty minutes. Viv saw her face, she looked worn out and her eyes were red and wet with tears. Viv managed to hide so Samantha didn't know she was there which seemed to work. Samantha headed towards the sink and washed her face.

By the time Viv reached the office again, Samantha was gathering her stuff together and waking Aidan to get him to walk to the car. "I'll carry him for you." Danny offered.

"It's all right Danny, he needs to be awake for when we get home anyway. Thanks for the offer."

After she had left, Viv gave Jack her report of what she had seen in the bathroom. "We'll just have to keep a closer eye on her in the future, she'll eventually come to us." Martin said, hoping he was right. He hated to see anyone in trouble.

Back at the house Samantha cautiously lifted Abby from her seat, it was easier that way. Aidan trudged into the house in front of her. Paul appeared from nowhere. "Where in God's name have you been?" He yelled not caring the children were there.

"Work."

"No you haven't you lying slut." And with that he pushed her to the ground and kicked her in the ribs. Samantha protected Abby, who lay in her arms, while Paul continued to kick her.

"Leave Mommy alone." Aidan yelled at his daddy. He knew daddy played games with mommy, but Mommy was hurt this time. "She's got boo-boo's."

"I'll give you boo-boo's." Paul said lashing out at his son. Aidan screamed as his fathers hand backed off his cheek, sending him flying into his mother.

"Paul leave us please." Samantha pleaded. Miraculously he did, letting Samantha pull her son into her arms and held him tight. Soon all three fell asleep on the floor of the hallway and had a very uncomfortable night.


	4. Chapter 4

A.N – Sorry bout the delay. Life took over this week, but here we go.

"It's not like Samantha to be late." Martin commented the following morning after checking the time, seeing Samantha was almost an hour late.

Little did he know it had taken Samantha almost thirty minutes to get up from the hardwood floor where she had spent the night. Her entire body ached. Aidan was still visibly shaken from the events of the night before and hadn't left his mothers side. A bruise had appeared on his cheek from where his father had lashed out at him.

Somehow Samantha had managed to get the children into the car and drove into the city and to work. She knew she shouldn't have driven but she needed help and she knew just the people to do it. She had been suffering for too long.

The team heard the swoosh of the elevator doors and turned to see who was arriving. They watched as Samantha limped towards them, with Abby in her stroller and Aidan clinging to her leg.

"Samantha?" Jack said with a questioning tone.

"I need help." She told them, her voice not strong at all. It was hard for the team to see her like this, vulnerable and scared. The closer Viv looked at her she knew what she meant. Samantha was in the same shirt she had left the building in the night before. She walked across to her friend and took the stroller from her hands. Samantha looked grateful. She turned to Aidan. "Baby, I need you to stay with Uncle Danny for me."

"No Mommy." The little boy cried out, clutching his mother's leg tighter than he had before.

They watched her face contort in pain as she pried him off her leg and crouched down in front of him. "Aidan baby, look at mommy." The little boy lifted his head. His bruise now visible to the team. "I promise you Uncle Danny isn't going to hurt you. You believe mommy don't you?" Tears welled in Samantha's eyes as the little boy clung to her, nodding his head. He slowly, cautiously walked across to his Uncle Danny.

Martin helped her stand, hearing her raspy breaths in the process. "Paul?" Was all Jack asked. Samantha nodded and Martin led her towards the elevator and to the M.E's office.

Down in the M.E's office Samantha finally let out the pain she had been holding in for weeks. The doctor asked her to remove her clothing so he could see the extent of the damage. "I can't." She replied.

"Samantha, yes you can. The doc only wants to help." Martin told her and it was then that Jack realised what she meant.

"Martin, she means that she can't get her clothes off without help." Jack offered. Samantha seemed shocked that Jack knew what she meant. "Aidan told me that he had to help you dress yesterday morning. Samantha how long has this been going on?" Jack asked as a nurse entered the room to help her.

She bit back the sob in her throat. "Not long." She lied.

"Samantha!" Jack said with a warning tone.

"Okay a while, but I couldn't say anything. I mean how would it be for an FBI agent to say she was being abused by her husband." Tears streamed from her eyes as the nurse helped her out of the clothes she wore. The nurse tried hard to keep in the gasp but it escaped as she saw the bruises covering most of Samantha's body.

Dressed in a gown, Samantha walked back around the screen and Martin and Jack could see the bruises on her legs and knew that wasn't even half of it. The gown gaped at the back and the mass of purple showing was hard to see. The guys felt so guilty that they hadn't spotted anything before now.

Jack and Martin both stepped out of the room while the doctor examined her. "Jack what do we do about Paul?" Martin asked.

"We wait and find out what Samantha wants to do. If she wants to press charges we contact the police and let them know the situation. Not only has he abused his wife and children, he has harmed a federal officer so that has to be something."

The doctor came out of the room an hour later. "Agent Malone, Agent Fitzgerald, we're finished our examination. And I have to say Agent Spade is lucky to be alive. She has two broken ribs, one very close to piercing her lung. Ninety percent of her body has been bruised. She has some internal bruising on a few organs but nothing that will cause her major concern. It's her ribs that I am most worried about. She needs to be hospitalized for a few days to keep her stationary."

Both Jack and Martin were shocked to hear what they were being told. "Okay doctor, anything else we can do for her?"

"She mentioned her son was hurt last night and her daughter also may have suffered some damage. If you could get them to me and I can examine them too."

"Certainly. I'll go and get them now." Martin offered.

"Will she be all right doc?"

"In time. Physically she'll heal in a couple of weeks, who knows how long she will take to get over this, emotionally and psychologically."

"We'll be there to help her every step of the way, don't you worry about that." Jack told the doctor vowing to himself he would stop at nothing till Samantha felt safe again. And he knew the rest of the team would be behind him as well.


	5. Chapter 5

Samantha was dozing when she heard her daughters cry. Opening her eyes, she tried to move but remembered she couldn't. Pain shot through her body and she cried out in pain. Viv entered the room quickly with Abby in her arms. "Samantha what's wrong?"

"Moved too quickly. Heard her cry." She managed to tell Viv.

"Sorry, but she's hungry and won't take a bottle."

"Give her here." Samantha asked as she made herself as comfortable as she could. Opening her hospital gown, Viv tried her hardest not to gasp at Samantha's injuries. "Don't worry, I'm doing all right now."

"Wish you had told us." Viv told her as she handed the baby down to her mom. Watching as the baby latched onto Samantha and drank hungrily. "Guess she really was hungry?"

"I am still trying to wean from me and onto formula, but it isn't working all that well as you can see and I haven't expressed for a while so it's all right." Samantha looked lovingly down to her daughter.

"Doesn't it hurt, with your injuries?" Viv asked sitting on the plastic chair beside her bed.

"Actually no it doesn't. It's the only part of the day when I am not in pain." Samantha explained as she softly stroked Abby's head. "Aidan and Abby are my lifeline and when ever I see them I am not in pain any more."

Viv smiled sadly at her friend, knowing how hard it must be for her to talk about this to anyone, especially her friends and colleagues. "Can I ask what happened?"

Samantha took a minute before starting that she hadn't wanted to tell anyone. "It started not long after Abby was born. I don't know what changed in him, but something did. He would look at me with such hate in his eyes I couldn't take it. I would spend most of my time with the children, kept the house tidy and had his dinner ready when he came in from work but nothing seemed to please him. The first time he hit me I didn't think anything of it. He promised he would never do it again and stupidly I believed him. But over time things just kept getting worse and worse. When I came back to work that was when it got really bad. But the last week have been the worst. Last night is the first time he lashed out at Aidan. But Aidan was only trying to protect me." Tears blinded Samantha. "He's only three and doesn't know what's going on. Paul told him one time that we were playing a game. But last night Aidan seemed to know it wasn't a game and got hit for interrupting."

"He's okay though Samantha. Danny has him. He is being so brave and has told us what he has seen." This only made the tears in Samantha's eyes fall faster. "Hey, it's all right. Samantha I promise you, you will get through this."

"I know, but will they?" She questioned looking down to where her daughter had fallen asleep against her breast.

Upstairs in the bullpen Martin sat with Aidan. "Uncle Martin, is mommy all right?"

"She is sore Aid, but she will get better. Once Auntie Viv comes back up stairs we can go and see her." Martin reassured the little boy.

"Daddy always said it was a game, but it didn't look like a fun game. Mommy always says that hitting is wrong and if someone hits you, you should tell someone."

"That's right Aidan, you should tell, but daddy should never have hit mommy or you."

The little boy sat in quiet contemplation thinking over what Martin had told him. Before long the elevator doors opened and Viv appeared back in the bullpen. "Auntie Viv, where's Abby?" The little boy sounded panicked.

"Mommy has her and she wants to see her brave little man." Viv told the boy as she crouched down to his level.

"Uncle Martin's going to take me, aren't you?" Martin nodded. "Come on then." Aidan grabbed Martin's hand and dragged him to the elevator.

Aidan and Martin reached Samantha's room door. "Now Aidan remember, Mommy is in pain. So go easy."

"I promise I will." He said. Martin opened the door and Aidan ran in and stood beside Samantha's bed. "Hi mommy."

"There's my hero." Samantha smiled weakly at Aidan. "You got a hug for me?"

"Uncle Martin said I was to go easy, cause you're hurt."

"I am hurt but I really need a hug from my best boy. Maybe Uncle Martin will lift you up and put you on the bed beside me." Abby was already asleep in Samantha's other arm. Martin lifted Aidan up and placed him on Samantha's side. "I love you so much Aidan."

"I love you too mommy." The little boy said as he yawned. Slowly his eyes closed and he slipped into a peaceful sleep.

"You have the touch." Martin commented, watching Samantha with her sleeping children.

"Yeah." She said his voice quivering. "I told Jack to go ahead and press charges."

"It's for the best Samantha."

"Is it really?" She questioned before her eyes too slipped shut.

A.N – Sorry it has taken me so long to get this next chapter up. My muse kinda left me and life took over. But thanks for the encouraging reviews so far. Hopefully I will find my muse hanging about somewhere soon.


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